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The IT energy crisis is upon us. Information and communication technologies (ICT) account for 8-10% of the European Union’s electricity consumption and up to 4% of its carbon emissions! So what role can have cloud computing on the quest for greater energy efficiency, you may ask. A number of European research projects funded under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme are proactively finding solutions to improve energy efficiency in cloud computing.

Clever Cloud User - TIPS - BEE SECURE is promoted by Securitymadein.lu, Luxembourg main national online source for cyber security, which provides news, relevant information as well as a toolbox with useful cyber security solutions for private users, organizations and the ICT community.

While brand managers the world over complain about the deluge of data they need to make sense of these days, data scientists at CERN are trying to solve the mysteries of the universe using facilities like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator. Sifting through billions of data points from a fire hose measurable in terabytes per second, the data challenges faced by CERN’s physicists dwarf those of most commercial entities.

General Electric plans to launch its own cloud crafted to handle industrial data and applications. On Tuesday, GE will formally announce Predix Cloud which it is building specifically to handle the types of data generated by jet engines, MRI scanners, power generation equipment, and other heavy-duty gear.

The panel of experts included Gino Thielemans, Head of IT Supervision, National Bank of Belgium; Noémie Papp, Legal Adviser, Consumer Affairs and Coordinator Digital issues, European Banking Federation; and Bruno Schroder, National Technology Officer, Microsoft. It was moderated by Florian Damas, Alcatel-Lucent, and Vice Chair, Cloud Council, DIGITALEUROPE.

The Digital Single Market Strategy will maximise the growth potential of the European Digital Economy and of its society, so that every European can enjoy its full benefit.

The economy and society of Europe need to make the most of digital. 47% of EU population is not properly digitally skilled, yet in the near future, 90% of jobs will require some level of digital skills.

Frost & Sullivan’s surveys of senior IT management show that cloud adoption accelerated in 2014. More than 50% of US-based enterprises are now using public cloud to some degree. And while Europe is around a couple of years behind the US, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) spending is still growing at nearly 40% and will exceed $10 billion by 2019.

For the past few years everyone has marked-out a constant increase in public and private clouds. Whether to adopt a public cloud approach (off-premise IT capability or application, provided by others) or go for private cloud (on-premise enablement of cloud possibilities with existing IT) has always been an incensed topic for debate throughout the IT industry and the business.

Cloud services are built to be universal: Netflix works the same anywhere in the US, and except for rights constraints, you could extend that to the entire world. But many taxes are local — and as streaming services swallow up more and more of the world's entertainment, that could be a serious problem.

Today, the Internet of Things is rapidly building connections between devices, starting with wearables, cars and appliances. A recent report from Gartner forecasts that, “4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30 percent from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020.”

What does it take to achieve the triple win envisioned by the Commission: a better quality of life for European citizens, innovation and growth for a competitive EU industry and more sustainable healthcare systems for society? This particular workshop afforded participants an opportunity to hear the Commission’s views and those of major players in this field.

Infrastructures are a fundamental ingredient of a successful cloud strategy, the starting point actually. This workshop heard the views of the Commission, of network equipment manufacturers and of lead suppliers of cloud services to stir a debate on how they apply concretely to the daily operations of public and private users of these services.

By affording lower barrier to entry and scalability, the cloud enables superior delivery of current services and the development of innovative offerings. By securing the same level of service irrespective of the size of the provider, it allows SMEs to match the quality of bigger companies. Accordingly, it provides all players in the business ecosystem with equal opportunities of major magnitude. The next frontier seems to be the mobile cloud.

With employees across the company empowered with greater access to technology, the tech expertise inside your business is no longer limited to the IT department. In many businesses, Sales and Marketing, HR and Finance are leading the discussions, with Line of Business (LOB) specific insight into the cloud solutions that can help drive their departments forward.

Over half of UK business leaders do not understand the digital economy, according to research. The study carried out by OnePoll and commissioned by Ness Software Engineering Services found that 57 percent of business leaders do not understand digital.